Second Chance
by Dying Kitty
Summary: What happens when the last person Jak wanted to see gets a second chance at life? Will he overcome his anger and see that death can change people, or let his darkside take his revenge once again? Jak/Erol Yaoi.
1. Water

**Right,** so there i was, happily searching away for a fic to read when i suddenly had the urge to look for any Jak & Daxter fics (M). Much to my horror and dismay, there are infact very few with pairings such as Jak/Torn, Jak/Erol. Torn/Erol, ect ect. I have therefore taken it upon myself to write one.

I'm more supportive of a Jak/Torn pairing, but this idea just mercilessly started to attack my brain at 4am and wouldnt let me sleep until 6am when i finished the first chapter.

**So**, this is what i've got so far.

**This is going to be a side story, so i might take a while to update.**

**M**uch **L**ove - **Kitty x**x**x**x**x**

* * *

_'This is... strange...'_

He could feel warmth.

_'Whats...going on?'_

He had been surrounded by a thick darkness, his body ice cold, for longer than he dared imagine.

Dead.

_'Am I dreaming...?'_

Yet now, somehow, a slow heat was making it's way through his frozen limbs, reawakening his blood. The once normal feeling of his heart beating steadily in his chest, sent a jolt surprise through him. His previously dead nerves tingling as they too began to work.

_'Is this...real?'_

Confused, he tried to move himself in the darkness, not expecting his body to work, yet it did. Everything responded as normal. He moved his arms and legs, maneuvering in what felt like...water.

_'Water? Where am I?'_

Quietly at first, the sounds of a city began to ring in the darkness around him. The familiar sounds of Hover-vehicles and people walking around, chatting to those they knew. He could smell the thick scent of pollution, swirling around him.

_'Haven?'_

Suddenly the darkness turned white. A searingly bright light eliminated the blackness he had become accustomed to. He blinked, trying to see but failed. He felt the light seemingly slash through him, pushing and pulling him, until he felt like he would be ripped apart. It was painful. More so than his own death.

He blacked out.

_..."Use your second chance well"..._

* * *

"No."

"Aw come on!"

"There is absolutely, positively no chance of me getting on that _thing! _Zip, zero, zilch. No way buddy._"_

The persuader smirked down at the refuser, who gulped harshly and started to back up, slowly at first before turning to run. He had made it no further than a a few steps when he was grabbed from behind and then sat behind the handle bars of the hover-bike he had previously been refusing to get on. His argument was understandable. The bike was a _little_ worse for wear. The engine was barely still attached, the seat had been ripped clean off, the right booster only went at half power, dents, scratches and _holes_ littered the body of the bike and to top it all off – it was on _**fire**_.

It was, indeed, a horribly mangled mess and Daxter was currently perched behind the, not entirely functional, handlebars as his apparently insane friend prepared to launch it back into the fray of the Haven city rush hour, after one already fatal crash. Fatal for the other driver and several pedestrians, that is. As usual, Jak was without a scratch and Daxter... well he'd just cowered in fear and somehow escaped with only more images of blown up hover vehicles and barely recognizable bodies.

"I don't wanna die today!" The orange Ottsel wailed, gripping the middle of the handlebars as the teenager blasted the jets in preparation. He should be used to this, really. It happened daily, after all.

"Don't worry Dax." With that said, Jak jammed his foot down on the acceleration and sped through the city, ducked down at street level. The city folk dived out of the way of the bike as they heard the approaching warning alarm that was Daxter screaming at the top of his lungs. At least he was useful for something.

Two minutes into what should have been a 15 minute journey in the city rush hour, Jak pulled up outside the Freedom League headquarters, where Daxter leaped from the Zoomer and began to caress the floor whimpering; 'land, sweet land, I love you so.' Jak simply rolled his eyes and walked towards the entrance lift, Daxer soon hopped up and perched on his shoulder. As they waited for the lift the discarded hover-bike exploded loudly, sending shrapnel flying around the area. The Ottsel paled before giving the teenager the i-told-you-it-wasn't safe look. Jak just grinned stupidly.

* * *

He opened his eyes and took in his surroundings. He was in water, alright. The grimy polluted water, that ran underneath the bridges of the Port. He was currently underneath one of the bridges, shielded from view. He continued to tread water as he thought about his situation. Wasn't he supposed to be _dead_. He had been, he was sure of it... so why was he alive now? He vaguely recalled hearing a voice as he passed out, telling him to use his 'second chance' well. Did that mean he had been brought back?

Feeling the beginnings of a headache he decided to think more later. Right now he was cold, wet and hungry. He swam round the side of the bridge tower and made his way up the small ramp at the side. The people either didn't notice or didn't care as he emerged from the water. Glancing down at himself he found he was in his old guard uniform, minus the armor, helmet/face guard and anything KG related. That didn't bother him. What _did _bother him was that he was in his real body, not merged in with robotic parts. It felt odd but nice to be himself again. He had been wondering if he would be recognized, but it seemed he was only remembered as how he was when he died.

He caught his reflection in the side of a parked zoomer, he looked almost psychically the same as he did before the Stadium 'accident'. In death, his hair had apparently grown, he wasn't sure if it would go back into his old stuck out style when it dried or stay as it was currently, flopped down around his shoulders with bangs hanging, irritatingly, in his eyes. Although, he had to admit, he wasn't quite as noticeable like this, even though his hair was a bright shade of ginger.

Sighing, he took off in the direction of the Bazaar. He contemplated hijacking a zoomer, but decided to avoid drawing attention to himself for now. At least until he knew what was going on.

* * *

The troublesome duo entered HQ and made their way to the map room. Torn would be there. He always was. Daxter was positive he had some sort of obsessive map disorder, since all he seemed to do all day was stare at it while handing off missions to Jak. The teenagers boots sounded loudly against the metal flooring of the corridor, probably alerting anyone in rooms nearby that he was here. He swiped his card key and the door to the map room hissed open. As suspected, there was Torn hunched over his _beloved_ maps.

"You guys back already?" He didn't look up, if he had he'd have only seen the smug faces of the two in front of him. They liked beating Torn's expectations, little did they know he'd given up expecting since they always managed to do one better than he thought they would. He just like to keep them happy, lest he have to endure the whining of the fabled 'Orange Lightening'.

"Deliveries suck, Torn. Why is there never any missions where I get to _shoot_ something anymore?" Jak liked shooting. He hated it when he didn't get to shoot. He usually flew out to the wasteland when he had nothing else to do but recently they'd had a lot of delivery requests from various merchants. He was slowly going _insane._

"Can't help it Jak." He replied, rolling his eyes. "Go kill things at the gun course or something."

"So you got nothing else for us? No more miss-" The teenager cut off when Torn's phone rang. It had been dubbed the 'emergency line', so for it to ring, something '_good'_ must have happened. The brunette answered with speed, grumbling 'Torn' into the phone as a greeting. Jak listened in.

"What? Are you s_ure?"_

"And you're _positive, _right?"

He glanced at Jak and gave him the 'look'. Torn seemed nervous, which was unusual. Something big had come up and Jak was just itching to get out his peacemaker and blast everything in sight.

"Right, right, I'll send Jak." He hung up, placed his phone back in his pocket, put his hands flat on to the table and _breathed._ Jak was confused to say the least. Was Torn freaking out? That wasn't normal. He was going to attempt a soft approach, unfortunately... Daxter got there first.

"Hey, tattooed wonder! Who was on the phone? Jak gets to shoot now, right?" The Ottsel practically yelled at the man. Jak suppressed a groan at his friends tactics. Torn openly sighed before straightening himself out and looking at the pair in front of him.

"Jak...we may have a problem. One of my men in the Bazaar is certain he just saw Erol-" He was cut off from the rest of his sentence as two 'WHAT!!'s simultaneously echoed across the room. Before Torn could get another word in, Jak was out of the door, down the elevator and commandeering another Zoomer.

"You have _got_ to be fucking _kidding me!_" he growled as he smashed the pedal down to the floor and took off in the direction of the Bazaar, Daxter clinging to the seat for dear life. It didn't take a genius to figure that Jak was livid. He'd already seen this man 'die' twice. The second time he was the one that _killed _him. He was sure of it. Erol was dead!

It didn't take long for him to reach the Bazaar where he discarded the almost destroyed zoomer and began storming around, frantically looking for any sign of the man that had found so much pleasure in torturing him. He could feel the dark ego beginning to boil within him. He would find Erol, kill him and this time he would make _sure_ the bastard was dead. He would rip him apart and burn the pieces if he had to, but this time Erol wouldn't be coming back.

**

* * *

**

So thats the first chapter.

I will admit that i havent played the games in a while (which i will change shortly) so if a few things are a little off the mark i'll alter them later.  
Feel free to point things out though.

**Note: I won't be updating unless it pulls in at least _some_ reviews**. I've began to notice that many people update and update. ending up with a 12 chapter, 40000 word story and yet only have a few reviews. **If you want another chapter, review your ass off.**

**Much Love xx**


	2. The Bazaar

**Chapter two of Second Chance. **(-- i'm probably going to end up changing the name...me don't like it. )

**This chapter is pretty long compared to the first one.  
**I had trouble finding a place to stop.

**Please read and review!**

**Much Love- Kitty x.x**

* * *

The red head weaved his way through the crowds of people in the Bazaar, after finally satisfying his stomach. It hadn't been hard to grab something to eat, even without money. He had been the best of the KG. Stealing a few pieces of fruit when the vendors back was turned, wasn't exactly the most difficult mission he'd completed.

He wasn't sure what to do next. He didn't have anywhere to go. Anyone who knew him was either dead or the enemy. He had no status, no weapons and no money. He was stuck. His only option seemed to be to hold out for a while until he found a way to figure out what was going on. Food wasn't an issue, he could get that, but he needed a place to stay. He noticed that the guard presence in the city was much less than it was when the KG were in control. The blue armoured men were dotted about, but the people didn't seen to fear them, the atmosphere was much more relaxed.

The guards weren't the only thing that had changed. Some of the city layout had as well, as he found when walking around. It got more and more irritating every time he turned a corner to find a building where there was once a street. He'd figured that he had been gone a while, since the city seemed to have been fully repaired. He heard people talking about races in the stadium and by looking up he could see the repaired palace, although it was no where near as big as it once was, and was no longer connected to the support towers.

He stopped in his tracks when he came to yet another unfamiliar junction. The majority of the people were turning to the right, which probably meant that was the way to go, and who was he to disagree. He'd decided to head for the slums. He hated that part of the town but it was the easiest place to find a 'free' place for the night. He figured he could cope with mopping a few floors if it got him a bed.

He rounded another corner of the Bazaar and froze. The people around him continued to bustle along, as he simply stood and stared at the person standing around 10 feet in front of him. If he had any doubts on who it was, they were quickly dismissed by the orange Ottsel standing on his shoulder. Erol could only pray to the precursors that the teen wouldn't turn around. Quickly, he turned round and briskly walked towards the corner he had just turned before starting a jog in the opposite direction to where Jak had been. That last thing he wanted was to be caught by a pissed off Dark Jak, especially whilst unarmed.

After jogging for a few minutes he turned into the entrance of a dead end ally way which he had found earlier. He hoped he'd be able to keep out of sight for a while and hopefully evade Jak. He lent against a wall and sighed. Once again his thoughts wandered to how he came to be alive again and why. Why did he need another chance? Wasn't fucking up twice enough?Although, he hadn't exactly died in the crash, just destroyed almost every part of his body. It was close enough. He'd believed he was dead until he suddenly woke up with a body of metal.

He had to admit, death had changed his perspective on things. He was just another person. He wasn't immortal, he could hurt, bleed and _die_ just like everyone else. Most of all, he wasn't above anyone else. It might have taken death for him to understand that he wasn't some almighty god and that he could rise and fall just like everyone else, but with that understanding he had lost that desire, that incredible urge, to prove that he was above everyone else by being in power. Only a small part of him still wanted to destroy everything good in the world, but that was easily ignored. He'd subconsciously decided, whilst walking around the city, that if he had another chance at life, why not use it for something a little more productive than getting his ass kicked by Jak. The idea seemed reasonable enough.

He continued to mull over the idea of starting again. Of taking thing 'second chance' and doing something with it. Before he knew it the sky had dimmed and the noise of the city had died down to a low murmur as the last few citizens and shopkeepers made their way either to their homes or the run down bar littered around the city. He walked down to the back of the dead end and sat down with his back to a wall, knees bent to his chest, arms folded on top with his head resting on them. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

Erol awoke sometime later to the sound of a woman's muffled screams. From what he could tell someone was trying to drag her into the ally in which he was currently situated, planning on doing precursor-knows-what to her. Now, before the whole 'death' thing, Erol would have simply let it pass, ignore it and walk away, but now something angered him about it and it was more than the fact he had been woken up. The woman's cries edged closer and he stood up from his position on the ground before walking back round towards the entrance of the dead end ally.

It didn't take him long to lay eyes on a large male, holding a crying woman against a wall with one hand while tugging harshly at her clothes with the other. It was more than obvious what was going on. Before he could register what he was doing, he had moved closer and was speaking in the same commanding tone he had used whist serving in the Krimzon Guard.

"I suggest you remove your filthy hands from that girl while you still have them." So what if he didn't have any weapons? He still knew how to kick ass, and that included breaking someone's hand in so many places it would have to be amputated. The male stopped his assault on the woman's clothing but didn't let go. He straightened up and turned slightly towards Errol, sending him a heated glare.

"And just what the hell are you gonna do to make me?" He growled. He was a little taller than Errol and _fat_. No where near the size that Krew had been, but he'd definitely eaten a few too many Glub burgers. '_No wonder he has to force himself on women'_ Erol thought, glaring back at the man. He wasn't sure why he was so prepared to beat someone to a bloody pulp to save some random girl, but he was.

"Don't fuck with me, let the girl go." The man smirked, grabbed the woman by the throat, raised her up off the floor and smashed her against the wall before dropping her. She had screamed as she had hit the wall, a loud crack had sounded probably meaning that something was broken, but once she had hit the floor she didn't move. It was likely that the impact of the wall on her skull had killed her.

Erol was severely unimpressed.

Jak had been walking around the Bazaar for hours and had seen no sign of Erol, or even a look-a-like. He was getting tired and Daxter and long since passed out on his shoulder and was snoring softly _right_ in the teens ear. He had tried to move him but to no avail. He was glad he hadn't found Erol wandering around the city, but part of him was concerned. There wasn't many people with ginger, almost orange, hair and KG tattoos. The chances of the sighting being a mistake were slim.

He'd just decided that he was going to do one last check over the Bazaar area, which wouldn't take long since the streets were almost clear and he could use his hover board, when he heard something which sounded very much like a female screaming somewhere nearby. Looking round, he found that there were no freedom guards in the immediate vicinity. '_might as well do it myself'_ he thought, pulling the jet board from his bag and swinging it under his feet.

It didn't take him too long to find the dead end ally. The muffled screams had stopped at some point and had been replaced by the sound of fighting and the occasional angry grunt. He hopped off his board and placed it back in his bag. Daxter had woken up during the ride and jumped off of his friends shoulder, landing on the floor a foot or so behind him and waited for Jak to enter the dark ally. A loud 'thud' rang out in the air and would have been followed by silence if not for the soft panting. Jak walked into the ally, allowed his eyes to adjust to the dark and them continued to walk forward. After 5 or so feet he came across a woman on the floor. He bent down and checked her pulse and concluded that she was dead after a few seconds. He couldn't see well enough to figure out what had killed her.

He stood back up and felt a slightly trembling 'orange lightning' scramble back up onto his shoulder and grasp onto his hair. Rolling his eyes he continued in the direction of the heavy breathing, eventually seeing two more people come into view. One was a large male laying on his back, completely still, the other was knelt down on one knee, regaining his breath. He figured the one laying down was dead and so turned his attention to the other person.

He was relativity slim in build from what the teen could tell, wearing what looked like a black and white uniform in the dim lighting, but was probably a different colour all together in the light. The male had almost shoulder length, almost straight, hair with bangs that flopped forwards into his eyes. The man's face was pretty much darkened out completely with the lack of light, but he could see his eyes were closed.

That was when he noticed the faint outline of tattoo's on his face.

Jak would know that tattoo anywhere, no two KG had the same, and that particular design had been the one he'd seen repeatedly whilst being tortured with dark eco. Two, squarish tattoos over each eye. "Erol!" he growled.

Erol froze. He knew that voice. '_Oh...shit!'_ He hadn't even noticed someone else enter the ally and now he was stuck in said ally with the one that had killed him and probably wouldn't mind doing it again. Hoping he was imagining it all, he slowly opened one eye and came face to face with an orange rat. He opened both eyes and realised that the 'rat' was actually Daxter, and with both eyes open he could see the outline of Jak behind him. He knew he was mad without even seeing the teens expression - dark eco bolts were licking the floor around him, hissing quietly in the air.

"What the hell are you doing here?" asked the Ottsel "You're meant to be dead! We should know...we _killed _you!" he exclaimed, pointing at Erol as if there was someone else in the ally that had mysteriously come back to life after getting to little close to Jak's peacemaker mod. Erol groaned slightly and pushed himself to his feet settling his view on his old enemy.

His hair seemed longer than when he last saw him, back to how it was when he first escaped the prison. He also looked more mature, facially, he looked more like a man than a boy now. His gun was slung over his shoulder, one hand holding it in place. His other hand was clenched tightly. His feet were spaced apart, ready to push him forward to attack and Erol could tell he was just itching to floor him.

"Uh... " He wasn't usually one for being nervous but the person that had killed him was currently standing in front of him, pissed as hell, and he was unarmed. It would be a really bad idea to try and fight and he couldn't run since Jak was blocking the only exit. _'What the _hell_ am I supposed to do now?'_ He didn't get much chance to think because the teen began his interrogation.

"Erol...?" A simple question. Basically asking if it _was _him. He could answer that.

"_What!_" Ok...a little harsh on the tone. He mentally hit himself for being stupid. He was trying to avoid provoking an attack.

"How the fuck are you alive?" Now that one he couldn't answer. He had no idea. So he simply shrugged. "Answer me!" Jak snarled, not accepting a mere shrug as an answer.

"I don't know" He said truthfully. He just wanted to be on his way before Jak remembered the two bodies and decided to pin them both on him, eliminating his chances of doing anything with his 'second chance'. Two accounts of murder? That would be...oh...a whole _lifetime_ in a cell. He just hoped Jak would accept that he was clueless. Ha! No such luck.

"Tell me! I asked you how the fuck you got your ass back here when you should be _dead_!" Erol didn't recall that being that actual question but decided it probably wouldn't be wise to point it out.

"And I told you that I. Don't. Know!" He was pushing it, he knew that, but Jak really needed to learn to accept when people don't know something.

"Erol..." Jak warned, his voice low and threatening. Errol glared at him.

"How the _fuck_ do you want me to answer, eco freak!" As soon as he finished snarling his sentence Jak lunged forward and punched him hard in the stomach before kicking him into the wall. Once again he was being beaten by Jak, although he had to admit that it was his fault. Why he'd used his old nickname for Jak he didn't know, but he had and now Jak was even more pissed. From his position on the floor he could see that even Daxer was backing away from the teen slightly.

Jak was standing a few feet from him, burning holes into him with his eyes. _'At least he isn't killing me yet'_ thought Erol, shifting himself until he sat with his back to the wall. Jak appeared to be thinking, rather than attacking. The eco seemed to simmer back down but still bubbled in the air.

"How?" Jak demanded. Erol rolled his eyes. Apparently Jak had great difficulty in understanding the phrase 'I don't know'.

"How am I alive or how do I have my body?" Two very good questions. He was damned if he knew. "Or 'how' something else?" he added, just in case Jak had decided to change the question and not actually tell him.

"Both" Erol sighed.

"Look, I don't know!" His answer earned him a harsh kick that winded him. "Fuck...Jak. I don't... fucking...know!" he wheezed, glaring up at the teen who was about to deal him another blow when he was stopped by a certain orange Ottsel. Erol never thought he'd be happy to see Daxter, yet here he was, thanking the precursors for his existence.

"Jak... I kinda think that he doesn't know. Unless the reason he's back has something to do with him trying to make the planet go 'boom' again... I don't see why he wouldn't tell us, and honestly, does the guy _look_ like he's planning the death of us all?" He heard Erol mutter 'that's debatable' when he said the last part, but since Jak didn't lunge for him again he guessed he hadn't heard.

Jak calmed down slightly and pulled back the dark eco that was leaking from him. Daxter had a point, Erol really _didn't_ look like he was up to destroying worlds. Nodding to his friend to let him know that he wasn't going to kill the guy, he walked over to Erol and crouched down in front of him before reaching out to check the ribs on the side he'd kicked him. He could feel the man's dark eyes on him and after a few seconds he pulled his arm back and looked up. "Nothings broken" he said before standing back up and extending his arm out to help Erol up. Erol looked at Jak suspiciously. _'One minute he's trying to kill me, the next he's making sure I'm ok and helping me up? Fucked up, or what! Although... I guess that would my fault...'_ deciding he had nothing to loose he reached up and grabbed onto the teen who pulled him up to his feet. He glanced over at the Ottsel, who was adjusting his pants, before looking back at Jak.

"So..." Jak sighed. "What _do_ you know?"

* * *

**Yay **

**xx**


	3. Bullet

**I'm soooooo sorry this took so long. **I've been busy :(

**I want to thank those of you who've reviewed so far, espeicially since Jak/Erol is an... odd pairing to say the least.  
Sooo... **

**Torn30: **You need to log in or something so i can message you back

**xNevermoreWolfsong & Newhi: **Thanks for the reviews!

**Dodie:** Thanks for the review, log in so i can reply to them.

**xxxxx**

**Much Love- Kitty .x.**

* * *

"_So..." Jak sighed. "What _do_ you know?" _

"Not much" Erol replied, stepping away from the teen. He ran a hand through his hair, which was now dry. It hadn't returned to it's old style, he was somewhat thankful for that – even if it hadn't stopped him being recognised by Jak, most people wouldn't notice. He lent back against the wall, flinching slightly when his ribs disagreed with the movement. He looked up at Jak who was standing with his arms folded across his chest, gun fixed to the strap on his back, watching his every move. "One minute I'm surrounded in darkness, freezing my ass off. Next thing I know, I hear someone tell me to use my 'second chance' well and then I wake up floating out in the docks."

"And your body?" Jak asked, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

"Hell if I know. I woke up looking like the whole thing never happened – except I was missing my armour and weapons." He was amazed that he and Jak were being civil. There was a huge amount of tension in the air, but neither of them were acting on it. He flicked his eyes to Daxter, who had finished tugging at his pants and was looking at Jak, who currently held a confused expression on his face.

"So... What we gonna do with him, Jak?" The Ottsel asked, glancing at Erol.

"Look," Started Efrol "I really don't plan on doing anything... stupid. Believe it or not, death really changes a person. I fucked up the first time, I'm not going to do anything that'll get you on my ass again, Jak. Can't I just... go?" The last four words earned him raised eyebrows from the blonde and Ottsel.

"Over Dax's dead body! No fucking way are you 'just' going anywhere!"

"Hey!" Yelled Daxter "Why over _my _dead body?" He did the Ottsel equivalent of a pout and glared at Jak, who didn't get chance to reply.

"Because you're _Orange Lightning_, you should be ready to sacrifice yourself... and you're easier to squash." Erol couldn't help himself. He smirked at the annoyed look that crossed the 'rat's face, before catching the slightly amused smirk on the face of his enemy which disappeared quickly, reforming into a frown.

"You're coming back to HQ. We'll figure what to do with you once we're there." With that, Jak began making his way to the open end of the ally. Daxter ran up behind him and hopped on his shoulder, muttering something about 'un-dead red heads lacking manners'. Erol almost fell over at 'un-dead', but decided that the heart beating steadily in his chest and his need for air qualified him as alive.

Reasoning that things probably couldn't get much worse – unless Jak decided to kill him after all – he followed the duo out of the ally.

Once they were out and in a more illuminated area, Jak stopped and turned to him, Erol watched the teen as he took in the older man's appearance properly. Once he'd noted all the the physical changes that he saw, he looked up at the man.

"Why'd you kill those people Erol?" He asked, his voice a littler sharper than normal. He watched as Erol swallowed, looking somewhat similar to a rabbit in headlights.

"I... didn't kill the girl. The guy was trying to rape her...killed her when I told him to stop." He wasn't all to happy about having to admit that he played hero, but would prefer than to getting another ass kicking from Jak. At least he'd _tried_ to do something good. People just happened to have died.

"And you expect me to believe that?" The teens voice was hard, threatening in a way. Erol simply looked up at him, dead in the eye.

"Yeh, yeh I do." Jak looked back at him for a second before turning and continuing on his way.

* * *

Freedom HQ had just come into view and Erol automatically slowed down. They'd walked all the way, deciding that it gave them more time to 'talk'. At first it had been Jak interrogating him further, bringing up his past crimes. Eventually it moved on to something Erol found much more productive.

He discovered that he'd only actually been dead for just over a year. Under new rule, the city had been rebuilt at almost 5x the speed it would have been under Praxis. What was once the palace had become the city hospital, offering free healthcare to the people of the city and those in Spargus. Those once exiled to the wasteland had been welcomed back into Haven, although many preferred to remain in Spargus where they had started families. He also found that his previous destination of the slums no longer existed. It had been rebuilt to look the same as the water slums had when he was last alive. People no longer lived in poverty. The heavy taxes had been lifted and many received benefits. Haven had changed and he didn't deny it was for the better.

To say he had Jak were enemies, they had eventually began to talk almost normally to each other, even going so far to joke every so often – usually at Daxter's expense. During the walk to HQ Jak realised that death did seem to have changed Erol. The red head's entire attitude had changed. He seemed so different. A large part of Jak was still on guard and still wanted to shred Erol for everything he had done but he also knew that the only power he knew of that was perhaps able to bring people back from the dead were the precursors. They had to have a reason, Jak just needed to find out what it was.

As they neared the elevator up into HQ Erol stopped. Jak stopped a few steps later and turned around to face him, aware that he was probably a little concerned about walking into a building filled with people wanting to kill him. Again.

"Erol?"

"Yeh, I know." Erol replied, not moving from where he was standing. "Jak, I... Well, I just wanted to... apologise, I guess, for everything." he said quietly, looking directly at the teen as he finished the sentence. "It's probably not worth much... but, yeh... I'm sorry." He looked down at the floor, unused to feeling guilty for anything. He was grateful that Jak had somehow made it through everything he did to him.

"You're just saying that 'cause you know Torn's gonna kill you." Jak said. Erol snapped his head back up, eyes a little wider than normal, only to see the teen smirking at him and trying not to laugh at his obviously shocked expression. He dragged a hand through his hair and sighed before walking forward to the lift. Jak swiped his card and the doors hissed open, letting them in.

"So, how is Torn anyway?" Erol asked Jak as the lift zoomed up the floors.

"Pissed"

"Any chance of you holding him off?"

"Nope"

"You know CPR, right?"

"Dax does"

"... Just let me die, thanks."

"Not a problem." Jak grinned.

The elevator doors slid open at the sound of a female computer voice stating 'command centre'. Erol stood still, not prepared to leave the lift until Jak was verging on carrying him from it. Childish? Yes. However, a pissed off Torn was not something one rushed to see – especially whilst unarmed and still recovering from an earlier beating, courtesy of Jak. He glanced over at the teen who was watching him with a raised eyebrow, not used to him being anything other than an arrogant, sadistic bastard. Daxter was on the floor again, tapping a foot impatiently as he waited for either of the two to say something or move. He'd have been waiting a long time if not for the bullet that shot out of nowhere and embedded itself it in back of the elevator, not millimetres from Erol's head.

The red head ducked and dived to the side of the lift where he was out of view of the corridor. He vaguely noticed that Daxter had moved with him and was huddled under him somewhere, teeth chattering and whining quietly. Jak hadn't moved other than to shake his head at the two on the floor of the lift before lifting his gaze to the shooter.

"You're loosing your touch, Torn." He smirked, raising a hand to indicated the bullet that was in the lift rather than the red head that it had missed.

"It was deliberate" The brunette muttered.

"Sure it was..." Jak returned, smirk growing. Torn shoved his gun back in the holster and crossed his arms over his chest, looking pointedly at the teen.

"I see he really is back though. What happened to killing him, Jak?" The older man asked, voice gruff and commanding. Jak ran and hand through his hair.

"Change of plan, I guess." Daxter, realising it was only Torn, removed himself from under his human shield and peered round the door to look up the corridor at the man, who didn't look all too pleased.

"'_Change of plan'_?! Jak, that bastard should be **dead**!" The brown haired man growled, glaring at the side of the lift that was hiding Erol from his view – and bullets. Jak heard the read head grumble something that sounded similar to 'Said 'bastard' is right here and can hear you' and had to force a laugh back, thinking how lucky the man was that Torn hadn't heard him. He took a few steps across the lift, grabbed Erol by the top of his arm and pulled him to his feet before looking back at the FL commander.

"Perhaps death can change a person, Torn." Torn looked at him like he'd gone crazy.

"Who are you... and what have you done with Jak?" The teen grinned at this, resulting in Torn rolling his eyes dramatically before turning to head back into the command centre. "You've got some explaining to do, kid."

* * *

So far, it had taken _roughly_ 1 hour, 23 minutes and 12 seconds to convince Torn that Erol did not need to be shot, locked up or otherwise incapacitated. The red head hadn't bothered with counting milliseconds, having been preoccupied with avoiding the many bullets that were fired in his direction whenever the brunette commander became even slightly more annoyed, if possible. By the time the conversation was coming to an end, Erol could be found huddled under the opposite side of the map table to Torn. If he hadn't been so concerned for his safety, he would have been rather humiliated.

"You seriously think the guy might have changed, Jak?" Torn was still rather dubious as to whether the red head was just playing a game, stringing them along, until he figured out how to attack. He'd seen the former KG commander in action. He was all too aware of what he was capable of and, despite the apparent differences in the old Erol and the new version, he wasn't prepared to accept him as safe – never mind sane.

"Like I already said, he _seems_ different." replied the teen "Besides, what else can we do?"

Torn leaned against the table and frowned. He'd had several options as to what to do with the resurrected Erol, but for some reason Jak had dismissed all but those involving the partial release of the red head. '_What happened to the Jak that flew out of here wanting to kill him?_' he wondered. Sighing, he walked round the table to where Erol was crouching and pulled him up by the front of his top before pushing him towards Jak. "Fine, but he's your responsibility. He causes chaos and it's on your shoulders, Jak."

Sensing the shooting was over, Daxter walked over to his friend and hopped onto his shoulder, grinning at Torn. "Don't worry. Jak here will take care of it."

Without saying anything Jak headed for the door of the command centre, Erol in tow. He'd already figured that he'd have to keep track of his once enemy but that didn't mean he was happy about it. He couldn't help but wonder if killing him would be better after all. It would certainly be easier. His thoughts were disrupted when they stopped to wait for the lift and Erol spoke.

"So, where we going, eco- Jak." He struggled not to cringe under the glare the teen sent him and cursed himself for ever having given the boy the nickname.

"My place. It's not far. Even closer if we steal a zoomer." Jak grinned. It seemed to Erol that the blonde had never gotten over his need to steal, speed and destroy. He just hoped he wasn't still in the car when the 'destroy' bit came about.

"Jaaaak." Whined the Ottsel. "You said we'd drop by the bar, I wanna see Tess." He dropped from his position on Jak's shoulder when the lift doors opened and walked in on his own, followed by the other two.

"I'll drop you by Onin's new place, think you can manage from there?" Jak replied. After everything had calmed down and the city had been repaired, the soothsayer had relocated to a quiet cul-de-sac in the Bazaar, a little ways from where her tent had been when Jak had first met her and Pecker. It was only slightly out the way from Jak's apartment.

"Sure, if you let me borrow the jet board." Jak simply nodded in response while Erol wondered if Daxter and a jet board were really compatible.

The lift went downwards and they emerged from the FL headquarters. Lucky for them,- unlucky for the owner -someone had parked a 2 seat zoomer near the lift, which Jak quickly commandeered with a grin. Erol refrained from rolling his eyes and slipped in to the passenger seat, deciding to hold on after watching Daxter flex his fingers before gripping tightly onto the seat.

Within seconds it was rather obvious why Daxter had trained himself to hold on with an iron grip, as Jak floored the pedal and shot through the streets at ground level, narrowly missing the few drunk pedestrians that were walking around, trying to make their way home. Erol was surprised to find that the teens driving had improved, if only a little, and by the time they had dropped Daxter off there was only a small dent in the side where Jak had slightly misjudged a corner.

The red head noticed that after leaving the Ottsel, they doubled back for a few streets before turning off down a road that was obviously newly built. It ran beside the new hospital and seemed to be one of the areas crushed when the palace was blown up. The buildings were all the same clean metallic blue colour with white doors. They were all the same width and two stories high, except for one which was simply a door in a wall and seemed to be the entrance to an underground area. That was where Jak stopped the zoomer.

Erol jumped out the hover car and followed Jak to the large white door where he placed his hand on a panel which seemed to search for dark and light eco inside the body. Of course, Jak was the only person with such things internally and so it was the most secure system he could have. 'Access granted' was said in a feminine voice and the door hissed before sliding downwards, disappearing into the floor.

The red head followed the teen through the door and down the dimly lit stairs which eventually led to another white door that opened automatically. Erol guessed it was a security measure which probably locked from the inside, the door looked like it could take a few hits from his former mechanical self at the least.

Upon entering the room, Erol glanced around at what appeared to be the living area. It was fairly big and was furnished with what appeared to be rather expensive furniture including a large wide screen TV, two 3 seat black sofas and sever huge black leather bean bags. Why Jak needed bean bags, Erol wasn't sure, but they looked pretty comfy.

He glanced over at the teen who was watching him.

"Welcome home, I guess." Said Jak.

* * *

**So... they have arrived at Jaks house. **

**Please review xxxxx**


	4. The Promise

**Well, would you look at that.** It didn't take me a month to update for once. Go me :)

**And so we slowly make progess. **There will be no rushing of the Jak and Erol love. Oh no. You will have to be patient. xD

**Again, thanks to my reviewers. **I haven't had many, but i'm guessing thats because it's an uncommon pair. Plus, i might like reviews but i don't write for them. I write because i want to. ...but review anyway. They make me happy.

**Much Love- Kitty xx**

**R&R PLEASE!**

* * *

Daxter yelled a slurred 'catch ya later' over his shoulder as he staggered out of the door to the Naughty Ottsel. He wasn't drunk, but he wasn't exactly sober either. He'd been halfway through a large black bottle of... _something_ when Tess had found him, taken the bottle from him and hit him round the head with it. He liked to think that the blow to his head was the reason the world was spinning, and not the fact that he had a low tolerance for alcohol.

As he'd decided whilst making his way to the bar on Jak's jet-board, he'd kept quiet about Erol's recent return to the land of the living. Jak probably wouldn't be too happy about a flood of people invading his house to try and re-kill the red head. '_Although-_' Daxter admitted to himself, '-I_ wouldn't mind seeing him run from Ashlin_'.

Giving the, still throbbing, side of his head a quick rub and blinking a few times to get his eyes to focus better, he opened up the jet-board and positioned himself on it – sat in the middle and firmly gripping the outer edge. Unlike Jak, he didn't have the built in ability to balance on fast moving objects and the last time he'd tried it he'd ended up at the animal clinic - and he was not going back there. Ever. No need to mention exactly _where_ the thermometer went.

Satisfied with his white knuckle grip, he gave one last glance at his bar before shifting his weight forward on the board and letting out a slight yelp as it shot forward, quickly leaving the sight of the Naughty Ottsel and disappearing into the dark city.

* * *

As odd and improbable as it seemed, Jak and Erol were both sat in the living room, can of larger in hand, watching the late night showing of the days races. Every so often one of them would pass comment on the racers driving skills, or lack of in most cases. Other than that they were quiet, content to watch the TV. Well, Jak was.

Erol was hiding his nerves behind a carefully formed mask of indifference for his current situation. He was actually mildly proud of himself for being able to act as though he wasn't at all bothered about being sat in the living room of Jak's home. Internally, however, he was only just holding it together. Every time the teen moved he expected to find a gun to his head... or to just be dead again. '_Perhaps being in a cell wouldn't have been so bad_' he thought to himself, glancing across at the hero who was engrossed in the current on-screen race. Sighing softly, he brought his can to his lips and emptied the remaining liquid down his throat before crushing the container in his hand and tossing it across the room at the bin. He missed, but he didn't notice.

"Want another?" Jak asked the red head not moving his eyes from the speeding zoomers. He'd noticed the red head glancing at him every so often ever since they had entered his home. He had chosen not to say anything, but now it was starting to irritate him.

"Nah, I'm good." Came the reply and Jak noticed Erol's eyes flick quickly to him them back to the screen again. Then again. Almost as if the ex-KG was nervous Jak was about to change his mind and kill him. _'Perhaps that's it_' the blonde thought. He hid a smile as an idea came into his head. Jak turned on his bean bag until he was sat facing the red head. He leaned back and stared at the older man, allowing a smirk to appear on his face.

Erol watched the blonde, slowly turning his head to fully meet the dark blue eyes of his past 'experiment'. Once again he began to wish that he had a weapon. Anything. A spoon would be better than nothing. "Uh... Jak?" The teen didn't answer, merely continuing to stare at him.

The older man looked unnerved. He was unconsciously shifting back on his bean bag. Jak noticed this and move on to the next part of his plan. Intensifying his gaze, he turned his smirk malicious as he allowed the dark eco inside of him to slowly leak out and lick the floor like lightening around where he was sat. Erol seemed to have gone from nervous to terrified in one go and the teen could see he was tense, ready to run. Jak held back the need to laugh.

"What... are you doing, Jak?" Erol asked, swallowing rather loudly. "I thought we were ok... or something."

"Whatever gave you that impression?" Jak asked, slowly leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. Eyes never leaving Erol's.

"I... uh..." The red head was fairly sure his life was about to end. Again. By the hands of Jak. Again. He had no idea what brought on the blondes sudden change, but he didn't like it. He was stuck under Jak's gaze, unable to move as he heard the dark purple bolts hiss as they touched the floor or furniture.

Suddenly, Jak was up of his feet and right in front of him, blue eyes turned black. Erol did the only thing he seemed capable of and jumped about three feet in the air before scrambling from the bean bag and bolting across the room in the direction of the front door. Which he _knew_ he couldn't open, but he wasn't thinking logically. It took the red heads brain a few seconds to catch up. When it did the first thing he as aware of was the sound of laughter.

He turned around to find Jak sat back in his bean bag, watching him and laughing. '_It was a joke?_' Erol wasn't impressed. To think that a kid had made him run across the room in fear.

"Fuck..." Jak laughed "You squealed like a girl!" He continued to laugh at the red heads expense.

"I did not!" He was quick to defend himself, but really he had no idea what had happened other than him jumping and running.

"You did! Your face was priceless!" The blonde forced himself to stop laughing, but his humour was clear in his eyes.

"I'm glad you found it amusing" Erol fixed the boy with a glare.

"Aww, come on Erol. I was just playing with you." Jak grinned, not at all effected by Erol's glare. He had just seen the man scared half to death, after all.

Rolling his eyes, Erol couldn't fight the small smile that worked it's way on to his lips. He figured it probably was rather funny to see him bolt across the room in such a manner. At least Jak thought it was. He still had a grin plastered on his face, even if he'd stopped laughing.

It was now that Erol realised that he's never seen the boy smile before. At least, not like he was now. He'd seen the malicious cruel smile and the sad smile, he'd half caught one of his goofy grins with Daxter before, but he'd never seen Jak _happy._ Content. The red head actually kinda liked it. He would have liked it more it hadn't required him to almost have a heart attack.

"That, Jak, was fucking evil!" He muttered, slowly making his was to the seat furthest from the blonde.

"Sure. You've done worse though." Erol stopped. He didn't want to look at the younger male. He knew that the smile had now disappeared. He knew that the blonde would be staring into space, although reliving the past. He knew that it was his fault.

"Yeh, I've done worse." He said softly. Practically to himself but he knew Jak heard.

_'I've done much worse. To you, especially._'

* * *

He zoomed round the final corner, narrowly missing the side of one of the houses, and came to a stop outside the metal door to Jak's apartment. He was rather pleased with himself for arriving home without having hit anything on his journey, despite the fact the world was spinning. Daxter hopped off the jet-board and packed it up before trotting over to the vent beside the door.

A few feet into the vent was another security system similar to that on the main door. The Ottsel stood still and waited for it to scan his DNA before the side of the vent opened up into the corridor behind the front entrance. He walked through the hatch and headed down the stairs to the second door which, much to his confusion, didn't open automatically as usual.

Grumbling to himself about Jak being lock in the apartment with a psychopath, Daxter shimmied his way up the pipe next to the door and entered the code into the keypad, resulting in the door sliding upwards just enough for the Ottsel to walk through underneath. Glad to be a little closer to his bed, Daxter jumped from the pipe, picked up the jet board and walked on through into the living room.

"Honey, I'm home!" He called, propping the jet-board against the wall.

"Hey, Dax." Jak replied, happy to have his friend back if only to break the silence. He and Erol had spent the last ten minutes staring into space, neither wanting to start a conversation. He figured it was mainly his fault. He'd been the one to bring it up. It wasn't deliberate, he just happened to say it without thinking. He glanced at the red head who was still gazing at the floor, apparently too zoned out to have noticed the animal enter the apartment.

"How's the happy couple?" Asked Daxter, grinning when Jak rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm beat, cya in the morning." With that the Ottsel disappeared from the living room and the faint sound of a door shutting followed afterwards.

'_Just me and him again_' Thought the blonde, once again glancing at Erol. The guy actually looked sad. He'd apologised earlier for what he'd done, but Jak hadn't exactly believed it. Now, looking at him deep in thought, it occurred to the hero that perhaps he had meant it. It also occurred to Jak that despite how much his had hated that cocky smirk that was usually on the ex-commanders lips, he greatly preferred it to the dismal and distant expression that was currently taking it's place.

"Erol?"

The red head broke from his thoughts at the sound of his name, looking up at the only other person in the room. "What?" he replied.

"Daxter came in and went to bed, it's late so I suppose I better show you where you're sleeping." He said muttered quietly, ducking his gaze from the older man.

Erol wondered why he hadn't noticed the little rat. Daxter was loud enough to be heard miles away. Passing that, he nodded and stood slowly from the leather sofa, running a hand through his hair to push it away from his eyes. It was futile, it's simply fell back.He wondered, for moment, why Jak wasn't looking at him but ignored it in favour of getting to a bed. He hadn't realised how tired he was.

The teen walked towards the corridor connected to the living room, Erol following close behind. They passed the first door which the red head had discovered to be the bathroom, and the second where soft snores were floating through from behind the door. It was at the third door they stopped, Jak opening it and stepping in.

"You'll be staying in here." Erol nodded and walked into the room, past the blonde who remained by the door. "If you need anything I'm in the next room up."

"Okay. Thanks." Replied the red head, sitting down on the edge of the bed and reaching down to remove his shoes. He saw Jak turn and head out the door, pulling to close it behind him. He stopped halfway.

"Sorry for bringing it up." Jak whispered, not looking back at the older man who had now sat up and was watching him.

"Don't be, Jak. I put you though hell. Worse." He leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. He was amazed at how strong the boy was. Even after everything he and the baron had put him through the blonde still hadn't broken. He was the only one who hadn't. Jak had taken it all and given it back tenfold. All the hate that Erol had once felt for him; for not breaking under torture, for beating him in the race, for being the one to kill him, for being stronger than him in every way. It just wasn't there any more.

"You're right. You did." The teen replied. "Yet here I am giving you another chance." Jak turned around to face the red head and leaned against the door frame. The partially closed door swung back open, stopping with a soft 'thud' as it bumped the wall.

"Why?" asked Erol, looked down at the ground between his feet.

"Because I think the precursors brought you back. They must have had a reason." He paused for a second. "And... because everyone deserves another chance."

"I think I used that chance when I became Cyber-me." He heard a chuckle and looked up at the blonde who had a small smile gracing his features.

"That was one lifetime, Erol. This is another." Jak said before moving away from the wall and grabbing the door handle. He said a quiet 'goodnight' as the door closed and left the red head on his own in the now dark room.

Erol didn't more from his position on the bed. '_Another life, another chance_' He thought. He wished he knew what was going on in the others head, just so he could understand everything. He sighed before continuing to remove his shoes, followed by his clothing which he folded and placed on top of a table in the room. He kept his boxers on, he'd rather not have Daxter invade his room in the morning and find him naked. He shuffled back to the bed and climbed in, not remembering the last time he slept in one. As Cyber-Erol the most he could do was flick to stand by. No sleep. No bed. He turned on to his side and pulled the sheets tight around him and shut his eyes.

"I'll make things right, Jak." He whispered to the silent room.

* * *

Before going to his room, Jak first went back into the living area to make sure the lights and TV were turned off. He picked up a few empty cans and placed them in the bin along with one or two crisp packets from when he had become hungry. Erol hadn't eaten anything. He walked over to the kitchen and flicked off the lights that ran along under the cupboards to illuminate the counters and set the timer on the express coffee machine so the heater would turn on before he was up. He hated having to wait half an hour for the machine boiler to heat up the water in the morning.

Quietly he made his way to his room at the end of the corridor. It was the biggest in the apartment and he used half of it to store his different gun mods and other items. He pulled off his boots and left them on the floor near the door before tugging off his shirt. He replaced his trousers with a loose pair of cotton PJ bottoms.

He got under the covers of his bed and stared up at the ceiling. It had been an odd day. The last thing he had ever expected was for Erol to be brought back from the dead. However, that was what had happened and now Jak simply had to deal with it, not that it was too hard since dying appeared to have turned the red head into a nicer person. He wondered what would happen if he walked into the Naughty Ottsel with the ex-commander. He would most certainly be recognised.

Jak grinned, _'Ashlin would shoot at him more than Torn, Sig would charge up his peacemaker and Keira would already be half way through the race entry forms for him._' Probably not a good idea was his conclusion. At least not until a few more things had been worked out. He sighed and rolled over, shut his eyes and drifted to sleep.

* * *

**And we finally have them in bed. Not together, of course, but in bed. **What will the next day bring. :)

**Btw,** just want to express my love for the orange ball of ur known as Daxter. He's amazing. Me was soooo happy when Tess became an Ottsel too. Ahem Sorry... that was a Jak3 spoiler wasn't it? Hm... oh well. It was only a lil one. :)

**REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!**


	5. Morning

**My apologies for the wait, but this is a side story. _Written In Sand_ comes first.**

**Anyhoo, finally uploading another chapter. **

**Much Love to those who are still reading - Kitty.x.**

* * *

Erol awoke slowly the next day, swatting at the bright morning light that flooded into the room through the large skylight that he hadn't noticed the night before. A light scent of coffee wafted in through the bedroom door that was slightly ajar and he figured that either Jak or Daxter had come in at some point. Yawning, he sat up and rubbed at the sleep nestled in the corners of his eyes before glancing around the room. The first thing he noticed was the was the the clothes he had taken off the night before had been replaced.

He pushed the sheets from his body and slid to the edge of the bed, running a hand through his messy ginger hair. Standing up, he padded his way across the soft cream carpet to the table where he picked up and unfolded the first piece of clothing which turned out to be a loose, white, short sleeved shirt. He wasn't entirely pleased with it but threw it on anyway and grabbed the second piece of clothing which was a pair of dark blue jeans, and pulled them on as well. He caught himself in the mirror and decided that, while it didn't look bad, he much preferred his usual clothes.

The last item in the pile surprised him. It took him a few seconds to actually realise what it was. He picked it up and examined the front, remembering the pristine condition he kept it in. Slowly, he traced a finger along the deepest and longest scratch which went across it from one side to the other. It had numerous other scratches along with a dent or two, but he was glad to have it.

"Thought you might like it back." A voice said from the door behind him.

"You kept my mask." Erol murmured in reply, not turning round to look at the younger man but instead continuing to study his once most prized possession.

"Yeh, it survived the crash and eventually found it's way into my hands. I dunno what made me keep it but it's yours again now." Jak really didn't know why he had kept it but for some reason he'd wanted to hold on to it, even though Daxter had either wanted to turn it into scrap metal or hang it up as a trophy.

"Thanks." The red head said, turning to face the blonde at the door. When he did he almost dropped the mask. '_Well, good to see the experiments didn't effect his body_' Erol thought, dragging his eyes over the naked upper half of the boy. He'd changed a lot since the ex-commander had last seen him semi-clothed. Back in the prison he'd been pretty scrawny at first but after months of fighting off the guards dragging him from his cell and doing bench presses and pull ups on the ceiling pipes he'd developed some muscle. However, Jak then and Jak now were two different things as far as Erol was concerned. Apparently being the hero gave you a damn good work out.

After a few minutes of staring at the younger male, Erol realised that the blonde had been saying something and was awaiting a reply. Having no idea what he should reply with he simply said nothing and moved his eyes from the teens midriff to the floor.

"Oh, the scar." The blonde muttered before quickly throwing the t-shirt in his hand over his head. Erol hadn't actually seen it whilst inspecting the younger male but he was aware of where it was and how it had got there.

Something else that was his fault.

'_I was such a sadistic bastard_' he thought as his mind dragged up the memory of him strapping the blonde's hands to a pipe than ran across the ceiling of his cell, so his toes only just touched the floor, and then dragging a sharpened blade down the left side of the boys body. Eventually it had healed into a long scar running from under Jak's arm down to just above his hip. If the red head had been paying attention to that area he would have seen the silver line standing out against the teens tanned skin.

He was pulled from his memories by the blonde saying something involving 'coffee' and 'kitchen' before walking out of the doorway and down the corridor towards where Erol presumed the teens bedroom was. Wishing he'd said something to the younger male, something that formed an apology, he stepped out of his own room and shuffled towards the kitchen intent on helping himself to the coffee that he had smelled before he even woke up.

Quiet snores still permeated the door to Daxter's room and Erol rolled his eyes. Apparently all the jumping around, shouting and almost constant use of sarcasm had a high energy cost on the Ottsel. The coffee, as promised, was ready in the kitchen and the red head poured himself some before grabbing another mug and filling it as well. As he stirred the contents of each mug he couldn't stop his thoughts wandering to the shirtless Jak and almost knocked one of the mugs over when he realised what _way_ he was thinking about the teen. Unsure if he was slowly going insane he shoved the milk back in the fridge and dropped the spoon into the sink.

Armed with the two steaming drinks he made his way back up the corridor from the living area, past his own room and up to the last door where he stood for a few seconds before juggling the mugs into one hand so he could knock.

Jak shut down the communicator and strode across to the door, which he opened, and found Erol trying to transfer a rather full cup of coffee into his free hand which he had probably knocked on the door with. Not wanting to have to clean the floor any time soon the blonde quickly relieved the red head of one mug and pushed the door further open so he could walk into the room.

"What's up?" The blonde asked, setting his mug down on the table beside his bed after taking a small sip from it. '_It seems Erol is better at making coffee than destroying a planet'_, he mused.

"I... well, I know we're not exactly friends but... could we talk?" He slowly sipped from his own mug so that his look of uncertainty would be masked. He didn't want his ex-enemy to think death had knocked his confidence, even if it had.

"Erm... about?" Jak eyed the redhead who stopped sipping to reply, avoiding his gaze.

"You know, just talk." He half mumbled, feeling like a little kid asking a girl on a date for the first time. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so... stupid. He glanced at the blonde and was surprised to see a small smile on the teens face. He'd been expecting the boy to frown and yell at him for trying to be friends, but no – he was smiling.

"Sure, why not. Could be fun to see if death had any effect on your social skills." Jak grinned and sat on one of the two beanbags in the room. Erol watched him for second before taking in what he'd said.

"What was wrong with my social skills?!" he asked incredulously, forcing back a childish pout and flopping down on the free beanbag almost spilling his coffee.

"You didn't have any." Jak said bluntly and Erol was about to start ranting when he saw the smirk on the blondes face and settled for frowning in disagreement instead. "Oh, come on Erol. All you ever did was bark orders at people, suck up to the baron or issue threats and an occasional sarcastic remark."

"You never saw me other than when I was on duty." The red head argued before taking another gulp of his coffee.

"Sure I did. When we gained control of the palace we reviewed all the security tapes, including those in the Guards social area, which you rarely entered and if you did it was only to glare around the room and grab a beer." The teen grinned again, knowing the older male couldn't argue against good hard video evidence. "The only person you ever spoke to properly was Ashelin and even then you were never sociable."

"Fine, whatever, but what makes you think death might have changed my social skills? I was stuck in a black void for months. No one to talk to in there."

"Well something has changed since we've actually talked quite a lot since you came back - and civilly for once." Jak grabbed his mug from the side and began drinking the cooling liquid. For some reason he'd always preferred his coffee to be just a little hotter than lukewarm, hot liquid didn't appeal to him in the slightest, he'd never figured out why.

"We have?" Asked Erol, puzzling over when all this 'talking' occurred.

"Yeah, we're talking now aren't we?"

Erol smiled a little and nodded in agreement, surprised to find that the blonde was right. He was managing to hold a proper, civil conversation with someone – Jak of all people – for the first time in..._ever_. "So... how is Ashelin?"

"Uh, she's good.

"Just 'good'? I thought you two were together?" He sipped his coffee, silently wondering why he felt the need to know about the blondes relationships.

"Nah, me and Ashe don't work as a couple, we're just good friends. Plus, she's engaged to Torn." Jak laughed as Erol choked on his drink, hacking up his lungs in an attempt to clear his only access to oxygen, before staring at the younger male – mouth agape.

"She's marrying _Torn_? How the hell did that happen?" His mind couldn't quite picture the two trigger happy, stubborn, ex-KG's _together_, never mind married. Surely the entire thing would be a danger to their health. He was certain they'd end up shooting each other.

"Yeh, you wouldn't believe the performance of getting Torn to propose. Throw him to an army of metal heads, no problem. Give him a ring and point him towards Ashelin and he turns into a quivering mess. "

"But he managed it eventually."

"Nope. Ashe got bored of waiting and did it herself. He walked into headquarters one night to find her ransacking the place in search of the ring." Jak chuckled and Erol smiled in amusement. How very typical of Ashelin.

"So, I take it you're with Keira then?" He asked, once again wondering why the teens relationship status was so important to him. He figured he was simply curious. '_He's pretty hot, and a hero, He'll have a girl somewhere._' He thought, not registering the fact he'd called his ex-enemy 'hot', if he had he would have choked on his coffee all over again.

"Me and Keira didn't work out. She likes her mechanics, I like my guns. In between those two we didn't spend much time together. She ended up dating the guy she took on for an apprentice." Jak's thoughts wandered to how much he scared Keira's boyfriend. The guy had witnessed Jak go dark when he and Keira had been testing a new invention of hers, and he'd never been within 6ft of the blonde since.

"So you're either single or you've broadened your horizon." Erol said before he could stop his mouth from moving. Jak smirked.

"Single. You seem awfully interesting in who and if I'm dating. Is this the new plan, steal my girl – break my heart?" The teen was grinning but the red head felt a slight jolt at what he said, although couldn't understand why.

"Nah, I think I've given up. You and your future girlfriends are safe from me."

"Good to know." Replied the blonde before drinking the last of his coffee and standing up, going over to the various weapons and gun mods on the far wall. "Anyway, I gotta go out of a bit. I shouldn't be long so entertain yourself for a while – just don't leave the house." He grabbed what he needed and walked out of the room, Erol stood and followed behind him.

"Why can't I leave? I was walking around for a while yesterday and you were the only one to recognise me." Erol said, running a hand through the length of his hair.

"It's less about you being recognised and more about Torn hanging me for letting you loose." Answered the blonde, strapping his gun to his back followed my a small hand gun to his thigh – just in case. The older male sighed and leaned back against the wall next to the front door.

"No chance of me tagging along?"

"Not unless you want Sig ramming his peacemaker down your throat" Jak replied grinning, "I'll be back in a few hours, Daxter went out while we were talking – probably to see his missus, I doubt he'll be back before me."

"Fair enough."

Jak did a quick check over his things before moving to the door and pushing the 'unlock' button, resulting in the door hissing open and revealing the stairs up to the main door. He said a quick 'see you later' to the red head before stepping through the door and locking it behind him, leaving his once enemy alone in his home.

Erol sighed as her heard the locking mechanism on the door slam back into place, sealing him inside the apartment for an undisclosed period of time. He could understand why Jak wanted to keep him out of sight for a while, but that didn't stop him wanting to be outside looking round at the new Haven city. He moved from his position against the wall and headed into the kitchen, deciding that it was about time he ate something since his stomach was complaining. As with sleep, eating was something else he'd lost when he become the mass of metal and wires, it felt kinda odd to be hungry.

Once in the kitchen area he walked over to the fridge and opened it to inspect it's contents. There wasn't much, so he grabbed the carton of milk hoping that there would be some cereal in one of the cupboards. In the third cupboard he tried he found a large box with proudly displayed 'Zoomer Bites' in large red and yellow lettering on the front of the box, indicating that the red head had found what he was looking for – be it slightly childish. He wasn't going to complain though, food was food. He found a bowl in another cupboard, quickly filled it with the cereal and after checking that the milk was ok, poured in over. He took his bowl and sat on one of the sofa's, wondering if there was anything else to do in the apartment but watch TV. TV ok, just in small quantities. He could only watch pixelised races for so long before wanting to shoot himself and he doubted Jak would be happy to find his living room covered in blood. He'd just have to find something else to do.

* * *

**It's not much, i know. Sorry. Jak gets to use his gun in the next chapter though! Yay! ^_^**

**xxxxxx**


	6. The Memories

**O**k, so... first update in a while. I think i pretty much completely died from writers block, and not just for this fic either.

**S**o sorry to all the people who have been waiting on this, i know i fail miserably. It'd probably a good think that i don't want to become a professional author or anything, I'd never meet any of the deadlines.

**A**nyway, it's been a while since i wrote anything, so i apologise if the quality is crappy, but i've tried my best.

**T**hanks to those of you who have still got this fic saved somewhere in the hopes that it would be resurrected. I don't know how u managed it.

**M**uch love!

**Kitty.x.**

* * *

"Holy precursors, Cherry, you beat your own high score!"

Looking surprised, Jak jogged over from the end of the shooting track to the results screen where Sig was standing. The larger man was looking mighty impressed since Jaks high score had already been ridiculously good, and the teen had just managed to smash it by an additional 16000 points. Jak definitely liked his new gun mod, even if it had been an absolute nightmare to find.

"Looks like the trip out to the wasteland was worth it" said Jak, slipping his gun back over his shoulder on the strap "wish we could go out there more often, just haven't got the time lately". Sig grunted in agreement and closed off their current session on the track computer system. Once upon a time they would go out to the wastelands at least twice a week to find artefacts or just to blow some stuff up. Lately things had been so busy with the freedom league that the shooting track was the closest they could get to fun.

"Torn should give you guys a break, you need to come out to Spargus again soon and have some _real _fun!" Sig grinned at Jak, who frowned back at him. The last time Jak had ventured into Spargus he'd somehow found himself inside a brothel, not deliberately, but Sig was never going to let him live it down. Jak still went red every time it was brought up, next time he was chasing a leaper lizard he'd watch what building it was heading for.

"Thanks Sig, but that's more your type of fun than mine" Jak smiked and deftly avoided a playful swing from the peacemaker user.

"Don't you let Sanna hear you say that, my girl would kill me whether it was true or not." Sig had finally found himself a woman in Spargus city, and if she wasn't the toughest lady Jak had ever had the pleasure of meeting, he'd eat his gun. She made Ashelin look friendly. "Are we grabbing food, Cherry?"

"I can't today, Sig. Things have heated up back at freedom league, Torn would have my ass if he knew I was here now instead of... stuff" Jak caught himself in time before he managed to mention Erol but Sig had heard and was looking at him in a way that reminded Jak exactly how much bigger his friend was.

"Something I need to know about?" Sig said seriously, he never, ever took chances where his city was concerned.

"No, nothing that would trouble Spargus. You know we'd give you a heads up if there was a problem like that".

"Yeh, I know you would, Jak, but Torn... I like the guy but he can be a real pain in the ass when it comes to giving out information. Haven and Spargus are supposed to be allied, but it feels like I have to drag every little detail out of him half the time. The bastard doesn't give an inch."

"I'll talk to him... again." Sighed Jak, knowing it wasn't going to be a fun conversation. "He just got so used to running the underground that everything still needs to be kept secret. He'll come around."

"Heh, he better do, rookie, or I'll send Sanna down for a chat." Sig grinned madly at this, probably enjoying the image as they walked out of the training centre together.

The port was as busy as usual, especially now street vendors had started setting up around the area. Since the rebuild of the city the port had become an extension of the Baazar in a way, with so much trade coming in there wasn't enough space, so day traders tended to stay in the port area while the live in traders had the bazaar. It was a nice little set up that had been worked out by the vendors themselves and was working out rather well so far. No need for freedom league intervention, which meant Jak had once less problem on his list of things to solve.

"Are you going to be dropping by the N-O later on?" Sig asked, hefting his peacemaker up onto his shoulder where it was most comfortable. The Naughty Ottsel had become one of the main bars in town, what with it being right on the side of the port. Daxter was raking it in.

"Uh, I'll see what I can do, but probably not. Torns keeping me on my toes". And wasn't that the truth, besides, he couldn't exactly bring Erol along.

"Alright cherry, but you let me know if I need to know, right" Sig gave him a stern look before grinning and setting off away from the blonde

* * *

Erol had discovered the true definition of boredom. While Jaks place was pretty decent, there was only so much he could do before he ran out of ideas. The TV lasted for so long, but eventually he was sick to death of race reruns and despite there being_ 723 _channels, he _still_ couldn't find anything else to watch. Since giving up on the TV, he had explored what he could of the apartment, which wasn't much. Apparently, Jak had locked most of the doors before he left, probably from the outside console, so all Erol had access to was the main living/kitchen area, his bedroom, the bathroom and a small cupboard which was home to a multitude of cleaning tools. Erol did not clean.

He had more or less given up on any form of entertainment and had flopped down on one of the beanbags to contemplate in which way to kill himself, when he spotted something slid underneath the TV cabinet. Curious, he made his way over and fished it out, finding it to be a rather large folded sheet of paper about an inch thick in dust, which he shook off while moving to a part of the room where he could fold it out.

It took him a few minutes to realise that he was looking at a map of the new Haven city. _'it barely looks like the same place' _ he thought, running his fingers along the areas that he did recognise. If you looked close the same basic layout was still there, it was still the Haven city he had known, but at the same time it wasn't. _'Those streets didn't used to be there... and that used to be a dead end.' _It took him a while but he eventually found where he had been the previous day, where Jak had found him. It was technically only around the corner from where the KG would meet for drinks on occasion, not that Erol ever attended, but it all looked so different. The bar they used to go to had been completely removed and was now the entry way to a new street.

Without meaning to he found himself tracing the way back to his own home. Honestly, he had spent far too much time at the palace but he had still owned a home, and suddenly he needed to know it was still there. It was actually fairly easy to spot, being in the newer part of the city before the rebuild, there wasn't too much that had changed. _'I supposed it's not my home anymore though'._

The redhead spent what was probably hours scouring the map for any changes that had been made, relearning the city that he had once known like the back of his hand. It was strange to know so many things had changed while wasn't even alive... when he had been dead.

_'What the fuck are the precursors doing'_ he wouldn't have minded an official answer from them. _'There's probably a hundred people or more that deserve this more than me. Why resurrect a monster?'_

The main door opening up and Daxter walking into the apartment disturbed his thoughts. Erol had never been so glad to see him, finally an end to the boredom.

The Ottsel looked slightly surprised to see him, almost shocked, before what had happened seemed to register and Daxter remembered why the previously psychopathic redhead was sitting in his living room. "Jak here?"

"No, he went out" His eyes locked on the door as it closed behind Daxter. _'And there goes my chance'._

"He left you here on your own?" He narrowed his eyes "what have you been doing, if its anything nefarious you'll have to deal with Orange Lightening!"

Erol smirked and waved a hand towards the map spread out in from of him and Daxter wandered over to take a look.

"It's change a lot... since before" Erol said quietly, missing the concerned look Daxter gave him.

"Things were pretty bad to start with, before the rebuild." Daxter sat down "We housed the homeless in the palace, which is why it ended up becoming a hospital. People needed the help. The clean up took longer than most of the rebuild. There was so much mess, and every time you moved to a new pile of rubble you knew there was another one waiting. Jak... Jak nearly killed himself a few times using his dark and light eco to help. People finally stopped seeing the eco side of him as a monster."

"I don't think I'll have that luxury" Erol smiled as he said it, but his eyes didn't match.

"People can be awfully forgiving, Erol." It was possibly the most profound thing Daxter had ever said, and it was ruined completely by the main door opening and Jak storming into the apartment, ranting about people who couldn't operate a _toy_ zoomer, never mind a real one.

"...and _then_, just as I thought I was out of it all and nearly back here, some lunatic left his zoomer parked _right_ around the corner where no one would see it until the last second!" Huffing in annoyance, Jak threw himself down in the corner of one of the sofas.

"Were you flying ground level again, Jak?" Asked Daxter, leaning back on his hands and tipping his head right back to look at his friend upside down.

"What if I was?" Jak muttered grumpily, before glaring at the redhead who was failing at hiding his laughter. "What!"

"You're pissed because you were probably breaking every driving law, in a likely stolen vehicle, and nearly crashed into a legitimately parked car?" Erol grinned, still amused.

"Exactly." Jak was grinning now, finally seeing how comical his rant had been, "Least I didn't actually hit it".

"Thats a first" Sniggered the Ottsel, rubbing his head where Jak whacked him with one of the cushions from the sofa.

There was silence then for a few moments, as though they suddenly remembered who it was they were with and that things shouldn't feel so relaxed. It was awkward being so comfortable one minute and so on edge the next, for Erol it kept him aware that he was the one that shouldn't be there.

"Ah, I'm gonna... go do stuff" Looking a little unsure, Daxter go to his feet and made his way out of the room, there was always a chance he'd come back to find that Jak and Erol had killed each other, but he'd risk it. Daxter wasn't the sit in uncomfortable silence type.

The click of Daxters bedroom door seemed to echo around the living area. What would normally have been a quiet sound was loud enough to make the redhead flinch from the break in the silence. He was avoiding looking directly at the teen, but he knew Jak was just sat watching him, it would have been a bit creepy if he didn't know Jak was just waiting for psycho Erol to emerge.

"What do you think?" Erol tensed at the sound of the younger man's voice, having not expected him to say anything.

"What?"

"The new city, what do you think?" Jak asked, shifting on the sofa to get a better look of the map spread across the floor, not that he didn't know the layout as if he built it himself.

"It's different, still Haven though."

"Yeh, it's still Haven. You look like Torn hunched over the map like that." Jak smirked at the glare he received "Suppose that's the KG in you both".

"More like the leader in us" Once again, Erol wished he'd thought of the wording before he'd said it. He forced himself to look at the blonde, who was assessing him through slightly narrowed eyes. However comfortable they were trying to act, underneath there was nothing but suspicion – from Jaks side anyway, and Erol couldn't really complain about that.

"Planning to lead something again, Erol?" And that sounded far too much like an accusation, thought the redhead, who just shook his head softly and began folding the map back up, careful to follow the folds that had already been made as though it was something precious. Honestly, it _was_ precious as far as Erol was concerned. Haven seemed to have been granted a new start, something he could never have done.

Without another word, he slid the map back where he found it and took the walk back to his room, all the while denying what Daxter had said.

He wouldn't' be forgiven.

* * *

Jak heard Erols door close from the living room and sighed. _'Trust me to somehow sign up to this'. _He wondered if Torn would let him change his mind and shoot the redhead instead, it would be so much easier to just waste him and not have to work out if he was going to try kill everything again.

His communicator went off in his pocket, beeping loud enough to let both Daxter and Erol know he had a call. Thank the precursors for the silent button for when he was on missions.

"Yeh?"

"Jak, it's Torn" he blonde rolled his eyes, he'd told the commander a hundred times or more that the communicator told him who was calling, but Torn still insisted on announcing himself each and every time.

"I know, what's up?"

"The sky. Jak, I need you to go down to the sewers, intel has one of those KG support groups using somewhere in the eastern sewers as a base of operations. "

"Is this the support group that keeps sticking flyers up everywhere, or the bastards that tried to blow Daxter and the N-O sky high last month?" Jak already knew the answer, and he was ready to be pissed at the right people.

"I wouldn't call you for the leafleters, Jak. How soon can you get down there?"

"Consider me already... ah... what should I do about Erol?" And there went his fun.

"Shit. I'd hoped I'd dreamt that. How's it going with him?" Torns tone suggested that if it was all going terribly bad, he'd rethink his non-execution plan and while Jak wouldn't mind it... the precursors had never steered him wrong before. Well, they had, but it had all worked out eventually. In a way.

"He's... still Erol, but it's like all the psycho manic part has been drained out of him. Hell, he apologised to me, Torn."

"Keep an eye on him Jak. Take him with you." Torn hung up, leaving Jak to stare at the phone in disbelief. _'Take Erol... with me? Is he serious? He tells me to keep an eye on him and in the same breath to take him somewhere I will have to give him a weapon? Erol... in the middle of a KG revival group... with a gun. Great, just great'. _Continuing to mutter to himself about the insanity of it all, he made his way to his room and went about selecting a gun that didn't feel like giving Erol permission to go crazy all over again. Not easy considering Jaks preference for anything big and deadly looking, but he managed to dig out a smaller sized blaster that he'd once picked up on a mission.

He knocked on Daxters door first, and heard the muffled end of a communicator convosation before the door swung open and revealed Daxter wearing the worst ' I'm innocent' facial expression Jak had ever witnessed since Krew.

"Who were you talking to?" asked Jak, frowning.

"Uh.. Heh... Tess." Daxter grinned, and that explained it all. Like animals indeed.

"I got a mission from Torn, says I got to take Erol with me..." His eyes slid across to the spare bedroom door, wondering if the redhead could hear them.

"And you need Orange Lightening to watch your back for you? Anytime, my friend, I'm just gonna go... brush my fur" Another grin, and the door was shut in Jaks face. The blonde was pretty sure he didn't want to know what 'brush my fur' actually meant... really didn't want to know.

With some hesitance Jak walked back to Erols door and, after quickly checking if there was anything else he could possibly do before, knocked on it. There wasn't even a seconds wait before a muffled 'come in' came from behind the door and Jak pushed it open to find Erol shirtless and down on the floor doing press-ups. Did his place lack entertainment _that_ badly.

"589, 599, 600" Erol stopped and twisted to sit on the floor, looking up at the teen stood in the doorway. "what's up?"

"The sky" said Jak, remembering Torn on the phone earlier and getting an odd look from the redhead. "Torn called with a mission, I have to take you with me". Knowing the safety was on, Jak tossed the blaster to the older man who caught with without even thinking about it. "Shoot me, even by accident, and you'll be a bloody smear on the floor".

"Uh... ok. Torn said to give me a gun?" Erol was rightly surprised

"Not in as many words, but I can't take you to a possible fight without some means of staying alive, I'm not that sadistic". It was part joke, part dig at the ex kg-commander, who had, on occasion, pitted the experiments against each other with only one weapon in the ring. Erol didn't need it explaining.

"Thanks"

"What for?" Jak was confused, had the redhead said it sarcastically, he'd have known why.

"Not wanting me to die in the fight"

"You never wanted me to die either" This was true. Jak was the only experiment that didn't go insane from the dark eco, the only one whose blood didn't boil beneath their skin and bones contort into all imaginable angles. Erol couldn't have afforded to let him die.

"It was my job to keep you alive." _'if only just'_ he added silently.

"Yeh, back at you."

* * *

So... let me know what you think since i haven't written a full chapter of anything in about 2 years.

I know there wasn't much story progression in this chapter, but i needed to get a feel for things again, and i think Jak needed to bitch at Erol just a tad more before anything... further happened.

Thanks for reading

Love you all xx


	7. 7 Drowning

**H**i Peoples!

**S**o... not quite as long a wait as last time. Still an abysmal attempt at time keeping on my behalf, so thanks for sticking with me.

**I **wrote most of this whilst talking to my best friend over the xbox live mic, not because i needed a muse (since i'm weird and dont let her read my work) but because she's the only person i trust to keep me completely sane while i try and force a story out of my useless excuse for a brain at 2am. A useless brain that while quite happily come up with all sorts of _new_ story ideas... but doesn't want to put anything towards finishing what it's started. Well, tough luck brain.

**A**nyway, thank you again to those of you still sticking with this. Even more thanks to those of you who repeatedly email me in the hopes that it encourages me to actually write something - keep at it, it does help. **333**

**T**o those of you just joining the story... i apologise in advance... this is going to take a while. **3**

**T**hanks also for all the reviews so far. You honestly don't know what it means for people to actually like my work.

**Also, for anyone who missed the warnings for Yaoi and a Jak/Errol pairing back in the first chapter and have no interest in this, bail shortly because it's coming up in the next few chapters... when i write them... eventually. 3**

**M**uch **L**ove**!**

**Kitty.x.**

* * *

"J_aaaaa_k, you could have said it was a mission into the sewers!" Daxter whined from his friends shoulder while the three of them waited for the sewer lift to finish its decent. It hadn't been until Jak had parked up the zoomer right beside the sewer entrance that Daxter seemed to realise where they were heading, and while Erol appeared none too thrilled with the idea, at least he was being quiet about it.

"Why? You've been down before"

"Yeh, and I'd rather not do it again... ever, and when I say 'ever' Jak, I mean _never_ because that place gives me the creeps!" Almost comically in time with Daxters rant and flailing gestures the lift doors slid open and his pointed finger stretched towards the almost pitch black corridor in front of them. His gulp was audible.

Erol had been quiet since his conversation with Jak before they set off, partly because once they got in the zoomer Jak insisted he duck down in case he was spotted, but more so because he had nothing to say to the blonde. He was beginning to think it would be better to take his chances and make a run for it while both Jak and _Orange lightening_ were predisposed with whatever they had come to the sewers for. Jak was still yet to disclose that information. Whatever happened, he and Jak would never be friends, even if Erol might actually prefer it. _'I don't deserve it anyway. How he's putting up with me around, I don't know. Maybe he plans for me to get 'caught in the crossfire', wouldn't blame him'._

"Erol, you coming?" Jak was already out of the lift and standing at the edge of the last light, as close to the darkness as he could go without being in it. Daxter, being as brave as he was, was clung to the side of his friends face, apparently not enjoying the expedition already.

"Hm." It was barely a grunt, but he stepped out of the lift and the doors closed behind him, as though it suddenly knew it was empty. Maybe it did. He walked up beside Jak and squinted into the dark, barely able to see anything beyond a few feet away. He really hoped Jak had though t to bring a torch. "Is it supposed to be this dark?"

"No, someone's turned the lights off, probably to deter people from just wondering in." What sounded like a snort and a 'didn't work' came from the ball of fur on Jaks shoulder.

"So we're after people?" Erol decided it was time to know what he would be shooting at since it sounded like it would be shooting back. It felt so good to have a gun again, not that he'd mentioned it to the other two, Jak would probably take it back off him, but it felt so familiar even if it wasn't his own preferred model. Maybe half his problem before had been that his hand felt empty without a gun in it.

"Yeh, they'll probably be happy to see you." With that, Jak took the first step into the darkness and a confused Erol followed a step behind, choosing not to ask the blonde what he meant. A few feet into the darkness and the only way they could only tell where each other was was by sound. Daxter of course didn't have a problem with this since he was sitting on a nice comfortable shoulder, but he certainly helped Erol keep near to Jak with the sound of his chattering teeth. If he got any louder, the people they were looking for would hear them coming a mile away and then they'd be in a whole other world of bother.

Jak kept one hand on the wall to be able to follow down the corridor. He'd been in the sewers more times than he could count, and although some parts were changed after being crushed by the collapsed palace, it was more or less the same. More or less. However, walking around a sewer, avoiding pipes, waterways and various other contraptions in the light was one thing. He could of course go all light Jak and illuminate the way, but turning himself into a human flare probably wasn't the best idea when they were trying to be stealthy. The fingers he had been trailing along the wall suddenly lost contact and he stopped. Erol walked into him not a second later.

"Fuck! Watch where you're going!" being annoyed but quiet at the same time never really worked, but the blonde gave it a go. Considering it didn't echo up and down the sewer tunnels he internally congratulated himself on his success.

"Well, if you'd give some kind of warning before you stop your ass in front of me _when I can't see..." _Erol had managed to stub his toe through his own soft boots on the side of Jaks much sturdier metal plated ones, not that he was going to say anything. "What's wrong?"

"We need to go this way" Jak may or may not have indicated a new route.

"How do you know?" Erol was squinting again, trying to form some semblance of night vision but it was just too dark. Even night vision needs a little light to work.

"About three steps in the direction we were heading is a toxic water pool. The sides are about 6ft high and you'd never get out before the toxins dissolved you from the outside in, which takes around 12 minutes. However, if you want to be your own judge, go ahead, take a walk." Even Daxters teeth stopped their chattering for a few silent seconds in surprise at the acidity of Jaks tone. It wasn't just his usual sarcasm; there was something sincere about it.

"Jak, buddy, you ok?" In the darkness, Daxter found an ear and pulled on it gently, getting the teen to turn his head towards him and pay him attention.

"Yeh, Dax, just a bit tense. Need to shoot something." Erol hoped it wouldn't be him.

They went on through the dark corridors, taking turns and navigating narrow pathways mostly in silence from there, Jak only speaking when Erol needed to do something to avoid possible death. However, perched on the blondes shoulder, Ottsel sensors were tingling. The teen was humming with contained energy, his skin almost vibrating with it. It felt like the first time they reunited after Baron Praxis forcefully enrolled Jak into the dark eco programme, when Jak couldn't properly control the dark eco that ran through him. Daxter didn't like it. Something was wrong.

"Jak..."

"Shhh"

"But Jak!"

"Shush Dax, can you two hear that?" Listening closely, ignoring the static buzz of the silence, there was the faint sound of people talking. Only a murmur, but it finally gave them an idea of how much further they needed to go. "Let's go."

Placing each step carefully to avoid making any kind of noise to alert the speakers to their presence, they slowly crept their way along their current corridor, Jak still guiding the way by a hand on the wall. The further along they went, the louder the voices became until Daxter could just about pick out the occasional word. They were close. Jaks hand followed the wall as it curved around a corner and then disappeared completely for another corridor to split from their current one. Jak stopped.

"Up here" It was barely a whisper, and then he was moving again. Erol followed. The voices became even clearer, loud enough for the whole conversation to be heard since they weren't even trying to be quiet. It sounded like a damn good game of poker, if Jak was honest, almost a pity to spoil their fun. The corridor swept around to the right and slowly a light began to appear at the end of the tunnel, literally. Daxter would have run for it, arms open wide, if not for the old KG turret that had been fixed up at the end of the corridor. It looked a bit worse for wear, rusty and dented, but the little red light sensor showed that it was still functioning. '_Great'_ "We set that off and they'll know we're here." Erol whispered as loud as he dared.

"I'm quite aware of that, _commander. _Go on Dax." Shooting a worried look at his friend, Daxter hopped down from his shoulder perch and adjusted his pants for comfort.

"If I die, tell Tess I love her and... uhmm..." He tried to think of something special to request.

"Get on with it."

'_Snarky bastard, what the hell is wrong with him!' _Daxter thought, dropping down onto all fours and skittering along the corridor to the KG turret, which ignored him entirely since the sensor was raised to avoid it shooting at every sewer rat that showed its face. Once behind the turret, Daxter checked around to make sure there was no one waiting to grab him, then hopped up on top and opened the control hatch. _'Okay. Blue wire, red wire, yellow wire, pink wire, brown wire... white wire... purple wire...Ah ha! Orange wire!'_

"Does he know what he's doing?" Erol opened his mouth and then regretted it, not sure he wanted Jaks attention back on him since he was already riled up.

"Not usually—" Jak was cut short by a high pitched alarm sounding and all the lights suddenly switching back on at full intensity, it was completely blinding. Ignoring the protests of his eyes, the blonde forced them to stay open and ran up the corridor to his friend, gun at the ready. He skidded to a stop beside the deactivated turret and Daxter hopped up onto his shoulder just as a heavy metal door slammed down behind Jak, cutting off the way that they had come in. Cutting them off from Erol.

"Uh.. Jak?"

"We'll deal with it later Dax, we have other problems." Ahead of them, filing into the pump room that the corridor led to was a mini army of KG revivers. They weren't official KG, at least not most of them, but enough of them were wearing the armour and had the facial tattoos to pull the look off. It was a little weird seeing a group of KG bearing down on him after so long, but not so weird that he was thrown off guard by it all. There had been several incidents where KG revivers had been involved, most recently that attempted bombing of the Naughty Ottsel, so Jak was well aware that they weren't just playing dress up. The group of KG filed into formation and then stopped, weapons aimed at the duo but no one advanced any further.

"So, we meet at last Jak." A voice echoed around the pump room before a figure stepped through the group of KG and came to stand in front of them. He was tall, ridiculously so, and thin enough that you feared he would snap if he was knocked too sharply. His clothing was out of sync with the KG behind him, and far too up market for the hustle and bustle of haven city. He certainly looked out of place down in a sewer. Jak had never seen him before.

"Hey, I'm not an ornament you know!" Daxter folded his arms across his chest and did his best to puff himself up.

"Of course, the fabled Orange Lightening. Forgive me if I do not quake in fear," The KG behind him sniggered together "But I'm much more interested in your eco fuelled friend." His smile was wide and stretched almost all the way across his face, the overall look was rather creepy and Daxter suppressed a shiver.

"Who the fuck are you?" Jak widened his stance slightly, gun still held ready.

"My name is Groph, Regin Groph, commander of the New KG and your _owner." _He did a sweeping bow to finish his introduction and then smiled at them, as though there was some private joke and he wasn't letting them in on it.

"You don't—"Jaks insides suddenly twisted painfully and he dropped to his knees, Daxter only just managing to keep his balance and hop off. It felt like something was tearing its way out of him and he could do nothing to stop it. Like the place inside him he kept the eco locked down had been ripped open and there was no way of shutting it. He gasped through the pain and tried to focus enough to keep a hand on his weapon.

"Jak?" Daxter was scared, his animal senses could feel the dark eco pulsating from his friend, being so close he felt nauseas but he wouldn't leave Jak defenceless. He spun around to Groph and pointed an accusing finger. "What the hell are you doing to him?"

Groph smiled and waved a hand back towards Jak, who was slowly turning grey as Dark Jak took over, forcing the change for the first time since Jak had learnt to control it years before. Daxter didn't know what to do, what could he do? Dark Jak still scared the crap out of him as it was, and this was something else entirely, he could feel it.

Groph smiled that creepy smile again and pointed back towards Jak, whose skin was slowly fading grey as Dark Jak took over, forcing the change for the first time in years. For the first time since Jak absorbed the light eco. Daxter didn't know what to do, what could he do? Dark Jak still scared the crap out of him as it was, and this darkness flowing through his friends was something entirely different from before. He could feel it.

"Jak, buddy, calm down, you control this now remember?"

"I can't... Dax...I...Groph..." Jak collapsed in a quivering heap and screamed in agony. Daxter watched at the change took hold and Jak went far darker than ever before. The teen contorted and roared as the dark energy flowed through him and created something monstrous. The claws that formed were longer and sharper, his horns more pronounced. His now pale grey skin had dark veins running under is as though the dark eco had infected his blood, and his eyes... Daxter had never seen eyes like it. While he had grown used to Jaks eyes turning black, these were beyond black. This was like looking into nothing. This was like falling into a never-ending pit of despair. The change had completed and _this_... this wasn't Jak anymore.

"Jak...buddy?" Daxter slowly reached a timid hand forward, but recoiled when his friend turned to look at him with no recognition what so ever. Hollow. Empty.

"Isn't that _marvellous!?" _Groph exclaimed, forcefully injecting a note of joy into Daxters minute of horror. Regin Groph strode his way across the room to the new Dark Jak and took a closer look at his creation. Daxter stood and numbly watched as Jak simply sat and let himself be examined like some pedigree lurker ready for sale.

"Jak, stand." Spoken like an order. There was a brief pause, a brief moment of hesitation, where Jak seemed to fight the instruction and Daxter stood there hoping beyond anything that his friend would suddenly grin at him, grab the abandoned gun from the floor and shoot Groph in the face. But Jak stood. Jak stood up and just stopped, as though awaiting the next order from his master. Daxter felt his stomach lurch and severely hoped he wasn't about the loose his lunch.

Groph turned to him, creepy smile still in place but with a smug twist to one side. "You better warn your people, little rat, that Jak belongs to me now..." He turned and ran one long pointy finger down along Jaks arm before looking back to Daxter "...but I'd run if I were you. It's about time we did some pest control down here, isn't it, Jak?"

Daxter watched those empty eyes turn to him and ran.

Daxter ran.

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